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Comics Characters Beloved by Brussels

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LIKE a modern totem, the faces of a boy and his dog smile genially on the city of Brussels from atop the Editions du Lombard office building near the Gare du Midi, the central train station. The pair appears time and again throughout the city in such disparate locations as a shop in the historic Grand' Place, on a mural at the Stockel metro station and in a downtown museum. One has arrived in the Land of Tintin.

The characters are the creations of Herge, the pen name of the Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi ("Herge" is an inversion of the initials G.R. written as they are pronounced in French). Tintin, a peripatetic boy journalist, and Milou, his canine companion, first set out for adventure in 1929 on a trip to the Soviet Union. Eventually, they would circle the globe, turning up in Tibet, the Congo and the American West, among other places, and even making a visit to the moon more than 15 years before Armstrong and Aldrin. The 24 Tintin comic books by Herge are currently published in more than 40 languages and have become familiar to three generations of readers.

In Brussels, however, where Herge was born and worked until his death in 1983, Tintin has assumed mythical proportions. He presides over the city on the giant lighted sign adorning Editions du Lombard, publisher of the "Tintin Journal" comic book, and under the city on the nearly 1,000 feet of murals, painted in 1988, depicting Tintin and his companions at the Stockel metro station. In 1979, Tintin even appeared, like royalty, on a Belgian stamp.

Tintin's most elaborate shrine in Brussels is the Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinee (the Belgian Center of the Comic Strip), which opened in October 1989 and has quickly become one of the city's more popular cultural attractions. Tintin is not alone among the center's exhibits, however, sharing space with many other native Belgian comic book characters, including Pierre (Peyo) Culliford's blue-skinned Smurfs.

In its first full year of operation, the center attracted over 150,000 visitors, according to Guy Dessicy, the museum's director. Mr. Dessicy believes that the appeal, aside from the local affection for comic books, is the center's building, an Art Nouveau masterpiece by Belgian architect Victor Horta. Originally Magasins Waucquez, one of Brussels' first department stores, the two-story structure, built in 1903, is airy and full of light under an enormous opaque glass roof. The openness shows off the classic features of Art Nouveau architecture -- delicate wrought-iron columns, lampposts and railings.

The focus of exhibits at the center is a so-called Museum of the Imaginary. Original artwork and first edition comic books are set among re-creations of typical scenes from the books. The display for Lucky Luke, a spoof of American cowboy heroics by the artist Morris (nom de plume of the artist Maurice de Bevere), is an archetypal western saloon complete with swinging doors. Not far away is a towering model rocket and a re-created spaceship cabin of the same kind Tintin flew in to the moon.

Although Tintin and the Smurfs enjoy international acclaim, a visitor raised on American comic book superheroes such as Bob Kane's Batman and Stan Lee's Spiderman is likely to find the center's lesser-known characters somewhat bemusing. The emphasis is on humor and light adventure rather than the American obsession with violent battles against crime and evil. Among the favorites with Belgians are Spirou, a red-suited bellboy with a taste for slapstick misadventure who was created in the 1930's by Robert Velter under the pen name Rob-vel, and Jean Roba's Boule et Bill, a young boy and his dog (it is often difficult to say which is the more intelligent).

The museum's "treasury" includes a large section devoted to all aspects of the Tintin series as well as a variety of native Belgian comic strip art from first sketches to finished panels. Other exhibits are an installation on the history of Belgian animation; a gallery space for work by emerging artists, and an instructional series of drawings by curators showing a fictional artist creating and publishing a new comic strip. On the street level, the center has rented space to two private businesses, Slumberland, a comic bookshop, and a cafe, Restaurant Horta, both open to the public. Slumberland, which owes its name to Winsor McKay's Art Nouveau era strip Little Nemo in Slumberland, stocks an extensive range of Belgian comic books and related gift items from posters to greeting cards.

According to Mr. Dessicy, who worked in Herge's studio as a colorist from 1947 to 1953, Belgium is recognized as the birthplace of the modern European comic book. Tintin's first adventure, which appeared in the children's magazine Le Petit Vingtieme, set a standard for European artists both in its published format and in the determinedly realistic drawing style heavily influenced by popular film. Gradually, an entire industry grew up around Herge and his studio, attracting to Brussels comic book artists from France, Switzerland and elsewhere. Today, over 600 comic book titles are published regularly in Belgium in both French and Dutch, the country's two languages.

The people of Brussels further indulge their love for what they call B.D.'s -- an abbreviation for the French "bande dessinee" or comic strip -- in the city's B.D. quarter, a collection of nearly a dozen specialty stores strung along the Chaussee de Wavre near the Porte de Namur metro station.

Among the newest of these shops is Little Nemo, 132 Rue du Trone at the corner of the Chaussee de Wavre. The owner, Eric Crochelet, opened the store this winter, and its eclectic display of collectible comic books and related merchandise includes a 1960's talking Tintin telephone, a Smurf chair cushion and World War II vintage editions of Spirou.

Prices for original Belgian comic book art, first editions and merchandise have skyrocketed, Mr. Crochelet noted, particularly since Herge's death. A 1929 first edition of "Tintin au Pays des Soviets" recently sold for about $3,450 at current exchange rates, making Herge what Mr. Crochelet termed "the Van Gogh of the B.D." On sale at Little Nemo for about $23 is the 1928 work which inspired Herge, "Moscow Sans Voiles" (Moscow Without Veils), an anti-Communist tract by Joseph Doullet, then the Belgian consul at Rostov-sur-le-Don.

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A resident of Brussels' B.D. quarter for 10 years, the bookshop and gallery La Bande des Six Nez (a pun on bande dessinee -- literally, "the strip of six noses"), is at 179 Chaussee de Wavre. Jean-Philippe Carette, the co-owner, noted that his clientele was a melange of French, Swiss, English and North American comic book enthusiasts as well as Belgians. Browsers may choose from a wide selection of contemporary comic books, vintage editions and original artwork. A favorite with Mr. Carette is the three-book Casterman series starring Philippe Geluck's Chat. A punning, sometimes mean-spirited cat with a taste for mice and political commentary, Chat seems the perfect antidote to an overdose of Garfield.

In the comic book quarter, a coffee break or light meal can be enjoyed with a comic book opened on the table at Fil a Terre, 198 Chaussee de Wavre. (Yet another pun, the name refers to "un phylactere," a comic strip panel.) This self-styled Bar B.D. offers a library of Belgian comic books for browsing or loan along with a menu of sandwiches, salads, pasta and omelets as well as coffee, tea and Belgian beers. Books are available for one-week loan for about 60 cents, though Fil a Terre requests a refundable security deposit of about $30. A recent visit during a Brussels rain shower allowed time for tea and a quick read of "Agent 212," the adventures of a buffoonish police officer whose latest assignment was to keep the peace at a Madonna concert.

The avant-garde of Belgian and European comic book art is highlighted at Sans Titre (Untitled), 8 Avenue de Stalingrad at Place Rouppe. Thierry Joor, who opened his gallery and bookstore in late 1987 and moved to the new, larger location in September 1990, searches out "stories with a new air, something that's not deja vu." He finds it in the work of such young artists as the Parisian Jean-Claude Gotting, who last illustrated a Gallimard edition of "The Double" by Dostoevsky ($37 hard-cover , $25 paper). Gotting's eerie work in charcoal, which Sans Titre exhibited earlier this year, is full of mystery and shadow; the original artwork was priced from about $290, about average for a Sans Titre exhibition. Another Sans Titre favorite is the Italian Lorenzo Mattoti, who has illustrated an edition of "Pinnochio" by publisher Albin Michel in a wild, neo-expressionist style that Mr. Joor termed "definitely not Disney"; about $38 for hard cover only.

Both the B.D. quarter and Sans Titre lie off the usual tourist path in Brussels. For those who won't roam far from the Grand' Place, there is the two-year-old Boutique de Tintin, 13 Rue de la Colline, just behind the historic square. The shop stocks items licensed by the Herge Foundation that range from Tintin key chains to limited edition, poster-size cover art reproductions.

The B.D. bookstores and galleries rarely offer editions in English. Visitors, however, can turn to Tintin for help. Harrap's publishes a widely available French-English dictionary, "Tintin au Pays des Mots" (Tintin in the Land of Words), which illustrates word usage with panels from the hero's adventures. FINDING COMIC RELIEF

The Bande Dessinee quarter in Brussels, on the Chaussee de Wavre between Chaussee d'Ixelles and Rue du Trone, is easily accessible from the Porte de Namur metro station, a less than 10-minute ride from the city center.

Here are a few places in the city worth a visit: Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinee, 20 Rue des Sables, lies between the Grand' Place and the Botanical Gardens, about a five-minute walk from each. It is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10 A.M. to 6 p.m. admission about $3.40, $1.75 for children. Telephone 219-1980.

La Boutique de Tintin, 13 Rue de la Colline, is a few steps behind the Grand' Place. Open Monday to Saturday from 11 A.M. to 7 P.M. (514-5152 or 514-4550). -- C. K.

Correction: October 27, 1991

An article on Sept. 29 about comic books in Brussels referred incorrectly to the Gare du Misi. In English, the rail terminal in known as the city's South Station, not Central Station

A version of this article appears in print on September 29, 1991, on Page 5005023 of the National edition with the headline: Comics Characters Beloved by Brussels. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe